Hi Randy
Enjoy it while you can - the bees are calling and there will soon be little
time for playing with computers! So far this year I have managed to sit on
my hands and resist lifting roofs (lids?), instead enjoying watching the
colonies working so well in the pleasant weather that we have had over the
past week or two. Hefting hives had shown that most had more than adequate
stores and they clearly needed no interference from me that would stop them
bringing in early pollen and some nectar. However, the question of space
has now reared its head, so today we started putting on supers. We are
perhaps a week or two late in doing it this year, which is not surprising
given the winter, but I was pleasantly surprised by the strength of most
colonies and most needed the extra room.
But I digress. Your mention feral bees:
> I would expect the same to hold true for A.m.m. anywhere in its natural
> range that it is well adapted for the environment, and that the influx of
> outside genetics is not overwhelming.
A.m.m. has done this very well and we have have found very pure colonies in
areas where there has been considerable introgression. However, the arrival
of varroa - another consequence of importing bees - there are so few feral
colonies left, at least in this area. So while A.m.m. would have had a
fighting chance in the past, it now struggles when large numbers of exotic
bees arrive. It is no longer a level playing field.
> Those following this thread would do well to read:
> Varying degrees of Apis mellifera ligustica introgression in protected
> populations of the black honeybee, Apis mellifera mellifera, in northwest
> Europe http://www.gbbg.net/pdf/ligustica_incursion.pdf
I have to confess that I have not seen this paper before, but skimming
through it (a more thorough read will have to wait) suggests that it may
already be out-of-date, at least for the UK, as large numbers of queens have
been imported since it was written. It also deals on with introgression
from A.m.l. - which in my view is now just a small part of the problem. I
picked up these points:
'The reductions that gave rise to the present scattered distribution of
remnant populations has mostly taken place in just a single century by
importation of and replacement by queens of other Apis subspecies.' Yes,
just one century.
'The extant genetic diversity of A. m. mellifera throughout Europe therefore
implies that this subspecies is a highly valuable gene pool for controlled
breeding programs selecting for resistance against honeybee diseases.'
'It has been suggested that the native British A. m. mellifera bees went
extinct resulting from the act of the Isle of Wight disease (Brother [Adam]
1974), but others have argued that remnants of these original populations
still exist (Cooper 1986; Ruttner et al. 1989). The relative distinctness of
the British populations in our comparative study supports the latter
argument and would justify and increase support of the British authorities
for the conservation of British A. m. mellifera.'
'The populations from the British Isles were generally more closely related
to each other than to the Scandinavian population. Interestingly, the
beekeepers that provided bees from these populations, except for the
Scottish one, are all members of Bee Improvers and Bee Breeders'
Association, BIBBA, so that the most obvious explanation is that queens had
been shared between members.' This should read 'Bee Imrovement...', but the
suggestion that that queens had been shared seems to me to be a little
unlikely: BIBBA policy is that members should breed from their local bees,
although this policy is now perhaps breaking down due the the large influx
of exotic races requiring members in some areas to 'import' stock from other
parts of the UK to redress the balance.
> Each of those populations is an evolutionary "baby," since most or all of
A.m.m.'s "range" was buried by glaciers not long ago.
I suspect that the same applies to a considerable amount of life on earth -
but that is not a good reason to denigrate a race that has developed and
adapted over many thousands of years.
>However, as the authors suggest, it would be wise to maintain genetically
>isolated
> populations of A.m.m. as future breeding stock.
Yes.
> I suspect that had he not been caught up in the "sexiness" of importing
> exotic stocks, that he could have bred an excellent bee from the native
> survivors.
I am sure that you are right. Perhaps he just enjoyed travelling the world!
Better than sitting in a cell in a monastery in my book.
Best wishes
Peter
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